David Brat, an economics professor
at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, has just taught Washington — and
one of its most powerful leaders — a lesson in humility [and Principle.]
Brat was dismissed by many Republicans inside the Beltway and
beyond, who saw an upstart without the brawn, dollars or organization to
depose the second most powerful man in the House.

The background on the man who won the biggest upset in recent history.

Video

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) gives his concession speech after a shocking upset to tea party favorite David Brat.

He did it by casting himself to the right of House Majority
Leader Eric Cantor on immigration and the Affordable Care Act — and more
importantly by giving pumped up primary voters and conservative talkers
including Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham an opportunity to make an
anti-establishment statement. Last month, Brat’s Tea Party supporters
booed Cantor at a key party meeting in his district.On Tuesday night,
about 200 of them erupted in joy in a nondescript building in an office
park in Glen Allen, Va. It was originally billed as a thank-you party for volunteers. But this was victory.
“I ran on six Republican principles. Every stump speech I gave I ran through the six principles,” he said, the crowd cheering.One of them: equal treatment under the law for all people.“Third principle, it’s not a punch line, it’s called fiscal responsibility,” he said.
Brat, who teaches third-world economics, sounded every bit the professor.
“The
10th amendment is the big one, the Constitution has enumerated powers
belonging to the federal government. All the rest of the powers belong
to the states and the people,” he said, winning huge applause.
Laurie
and Gregg Kalata of Midlothian were sitting on their couch in their
pajamas after working the polls all day. When they realized Brat had
pulled it off, they got up and came to the party.
“He won because people don’t want illegal immigration,” Laurie Kalata said.
“This
was not a tea party election. This was a conservative Republicans
vote,” said Gregg Kalata, who wore a homemade sign that read, “7th
District GOP voters can’t trust Eric Cantor.”
Like many candidates
running longshot races before him, Brat had spoken on the trail of a
sense of momentum. That’s what candidates say. “It’s getting
exciting — and I’m not BS-ing you,” Brat said in an interview last
month. “This district is conservative and idiosyncratic, and they’re not
overwhelmed by the establishment and their millions. It’s David vs.
Rome.”
Unlike most such seekers, he was right. Rome lost.
Brat
has a prominent photograph of Cantor standing beside President Obama on
his website, to embody his message that Cantor hadn’t fought hard
enough, and summarized his own bid in a Twitter bio: “I am running for
Congress to be ERIC CANTOR’S TERM LIMIT. Free Markets, Constitution,
Liberty. No more Crony Capitalism!”
On Facebook, team Brat posted a
picture of the Gipper in a cowboy hat. “Dave pays tribute to President
Reagan, and his vision for freedom, every time he says, ‘I will make
Washington, D.C. as irrelevant to your everyday life as possible.’” [?]
Larry
Nordvig, executive director of the Richmond Tea Party, said Brat’s
campaign grew from a dinner Nordvig had with film maker Ronald Maxwell,
who directed the Civil War epic Gettysburg and, more recently,
Copperhead. They were hashing over ideas on good candidates to take on
Cantor.
Nordvig saw Brat speak at a fundraiser for E.W. Jackson,
the conservative Virginia minister who nabbed the state’s GOP’s
nomination for lieutenant governor in last year’s election, only to be
trounced in the general election by Democrat Ralph S. Northam.
“I
asked him 45 minutes of questions afterward...about what would he do
about deficit spending, what would he do about Obamacare, what would he
do about amnesty …and he gave very satisfactory answers,” said Nordvig,
who described Brat as “presidential looking” — important in an era of
televised campaigns. “Between his appearance and his bearing and his
answers to tough questions, I knew we had the right man for the job.” The
results Tuesday left him and the other supporters “crazy happy,”
Nordvig said. “There’s a lot of can’t believe this has happened, just a
wonderful disbelief. Just absolutely thrilled.”On Fox host Sean
Hannity’s show after the victory, Brat said: “I was blessed. I mean,
it’s a miracle. … God acts through people. And God acted through the
people.”
Brat
also cited immigration as a difference-maker in the campaign, saying
politicians are beholden to the Chamber of Commerce. “They want cheap
labor, and that’s going to lower wages for everybody else,” he said.Brat
has long reveled in poking the establishment, talking up battles
against the “intellectual elite” while at Princeton, where he earned a
masters in divinity, and against “the powerful elite” at American
University, where he received his Ph.D. in economics.
His
campaign bio points to his time as an economic adviser to Virginia
governors, work which prompted an accusation from Cantor that Brat had
been too chummy with former Democratic governor Timothy M. Kaine (D-Va.)After
about decade at Randolph-Macon, Brat took a more direct role in
politics. In 2005, he took an unpaid position as an adviser to state
Sen. Walter A. Stosch (R-Glen Allen), chair of the Senate Finance
Committee. In that position, Brat researched higher-education
initiatives, including a proposal to create a grant program allowing
underprivileged students to move beyond high school.“He wanted
some exposure to the legislative process, and I was glad to have him,”
Stosch said Tuesday. “Both of us have an interest in education —
particularly in economically deprived young people who, without
opportunity, would not be able to go beyond high school.”Stosch
said Brat expressed an interest in entering electoral politics in the
years he worked for him — at one point putting his name forward to fill a
House of Delegates seat. But when Brat pursued his congressional run,
he could not count on Stosch’s open support: Cantor was also a friend
and former aide to Stosch.“It
was one of those things where it was hard for me to become too actively
involved,” Stosch said. “I was caught between my admiration and
friendship with both of them.”Stosch on Tuesday said he was “somewhat surprised” by Brat’s victory, recalling Cantor’s political work ethic.“There’s
a perceptible anti-government mood,” Stosch said. “People are a little
bit mad at Washington, and they express that in different ways.”
Mike DeBonis and Aaron Blake contributed to this report.http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/meet-david-brat-the-man-who-brought-down-house-majority-leader-eric-cantor/2014/06/10/ed7f6406-f0fc-11e3-bf76-447a5df6411f_story.html?hpid=z1

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